Remedy the airwaves

November 5, 1993

The article ``When Bad Taste Fouls the Airwaves,'' Oct. 21, makes a causal link between the film ``The Program'' and a student's death in Pennsylvania. However, the writer offers no solutions, only moral outrage. What are the possible ways to prevent our children from imitating violence in the mass media? If we use censorship, then who has the right to decide for us what we can and cannot be exposed to? The only real solution is to teach our children proper approaches to what they see and hear over the airwaves.

I would therefore propose a public awareness campaign aimed at teaching parents and children the possible effects of violence in the mass media. Mandatory prime-time education programs for all networks who have free public access to the airwaves would facilitate such a campaign. In the long run, what our society needs is not to castigate, but rather, educate. Paul A. Saydak, Buffalo, N.Y.

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